Alen a350 Air Purifier Review

The Alen A350 managed to clean our test room of 700ft in 35 minutes which is better than something like the Levoit Core 300, which is an air purifier that we recommend and that cleaned the room in 49 minutes.

Performance:

The downside of the A350 is its power consumption at a whopping 86.7watts which is equal to $133.67 a year at California electricity costs. Compare that to the far more powerful Levoit Core 400S that has 24.5watts at full power which would only cost residents of California $37 for the year it’s hard to recommend buying an Alen A350 but if you got one still in operation you don’t mind the extra costs of energy to save more plastic being thrown away then you might be tempted to keep it running.

*figures generated from our inhouse tool: How much electricity does your air purifier use

Updated 2020

The Alen A350 was an air purifier that was first sold in 2010, if you already have one of these units then congrats on keeping your unit running for 10 years. You will also be happy to know that you can still buy filters for these units:

Sadly the Alen A350 is no longer for sale but there are a number of new Alen units that you might be in interested in that have a similar specification:

1. Alen BreatheSmart 45i

With a CADR rating of 245, the breathsmart 45i would be the A350 for the modern era. This unit comes with the same Alen lifetime guarantee so you can expect this air purifier to keep performing beyond 2030!

2. Alen BreatheSmart T500 

This unit is a little cheaper but still has a CADR rating for dust of 159 so less powerful than the A350 but can often be found for less than $250 so significantly cheaper. This is a low priced unit but still comes with the Alen lifetime guarantee. This unit comes with the H13 which are the same filters used for medical grade air purifiers.

The following article is our original review of the Alen A350 Air Purifier from 2010:

PRICE = $399 (Amazon.com)

Before we start to dig deep into the pros and cons of this particular purifier. It’s worth having a look at what consumers at the major retailers think of this purifier. Most large internet retailers allow consumers the ability to provide a rating for their purchase. I use this rating as an initial way to quickly gauge the performance of an air purifier.

Review Site	Rating
Amazon.com	4 Stars (30 reviews)
Epinions.com	5 Stars (8 reviews)
Wize.com	4.5 Stars (77 reviews)
Shopping.com	4.5 Stars (8 reviews)
Air Purifiers America	4.5 out of 119 (10 user reviews)

The Alen a350 purifier has achieved favorable scores across a wide range of sites.

Note: Air Purifiers America has business connections to Alen so we need to take their scores less seriously than the other more independent retailers.

The video below will take you through a sample of Amazon.com reviews so you can get an idea of what people like/dislike about it:

The next step we take for this air purifier review is to dig a little deeper into what the experts are saying about this purifier:

1. Air Purifier Power – Written By Ed Sherbenou – URL

Air-Purifier-Power Rating: 82, good

Benefits:

• In recent assessments by air-purifiers-america.com this A-350 eliminated 98% of the contaminants in the device and 97% of the contaminants within the room.
• The A 350 purifier is great at airborne dirt and dust and plant pollen elimination, yet is also competitively cost-effective costing under $300..
• So the projected CADR (for basic comparability to mid priced store-bought models without having chemical substance blocking capability ) is 203.
• The manufacturer guarantees 95% of purchases will be delivered within Twenty-four hours, and also features a straightforward return policy.

Problems:

• Significant gas and smell elimination is really a necessity if health benefits can be envisioned: Models with actual carbon VOC ability position higher. We produced a list of the best air purifier for VOC’s.
• Alen A350 air purifier sound amounts will be over normal: 36 decibels(A)on low setting, 65 decibels(A)@214cfm on highest setting. 65 decibels(A) isn’t the loudest, but 214cfm is fairly weak for that amount of noise.
• The organization doesn’t sell direct, yet drop ships air cleaners marketed by merchants.

2. ConsumerSearch.com: URL

Provides some reservations that the A350 should only be used in smaller rooms.

Benefits:

• Highlights that this particular purifier can be mounted on the wall
• States that the replacement filters  are relatively cheap
• Mentions that the A350 comes with a Lifetime warranty

Problems:

• Talks about how come, consumers, mention that the power supply causes a “humming” sound
• Indicates that this air purifier should only be used in smaller rooms

CADR Results:

Sadly the A350 has not undergone a CADR test so we can not provide these results for this test. Thankfully Ed at air-purifier-power has worked out that this purifier has a similar ranking to a CADR ranking of 203.

The Alen A350, therefore, has an estimated score of: 203 CADR Ranking

Technology Used:

1.HEPA Filter

The Alen A350 uses one combined HEPA, carbon, and pre-filter in one unit. The only issue this raises is the price as the purifier requires this combined filter to be changed every six months. Currently, you can purchase the A350 filters on amazon.com for $49.99 which is not too bad but bear in mind that you will need to replace these twice each year – so it’s $100 per year. If I compare this with other purifiers that use Lifetime HEPA such as the Honeywell 50250-N, the A350 is considerably more costly to run.

2. Ionizer Function

One of the nice benefits of the Alen A350 is that it comes packaged with an inbuilt non-ozone ionizer unit. Normally I would suggest that people steer clear of ionizer-only units but when combined with a strong HEPA filter it can help improve cleaning efficiency. The ionizer unit will charge the surrounding particles with a negative charge which means that these particles are heavier and thus picked up more easily by the HEPA filter. Negative ions have also been shown to imbue of sense of well-being but this still has not been confirmed by scientific studies. If you are not sure about the ionizer then you can easily disable the function using the on-off switch at the top of the unit.

Power Consumption

The A350 has an Energy Star Rating but compared to modern air purifiers it’s uses a lot of electricity with a maximum of 86.7 watts.

Addressing the Sound Problem

Some reviews have mentioned that the A350 has a whining sound when running. In tests, we came across no such noise and believe that this whining sound was down to broken air purifiers. On the highest setting, the A350 creates a noise level of 65 dB, which is relatively loud. In the video below I show the Alen a350 working at each different sound level so you can evaluate if it’s too loud for your home. 

While the purifier is loud at the level 5 setting, it’s unlikely that you would need to leave it at this level for much time. I am quite happy with the sound output at the lowest level and so I would not find a problem sleeping with it running in my bedroom.

Performance Test

To test the A350’s performance, we set it up in our HouseFresh testing room.

We use this 705 cubic ft bedroom to test all our air purifiers to ensure it is done fairly, in the same conditions for a more accurate comparison.

To create pollution, we use incense sticks which contaminate the room with large amounts of pollutants. When the room is sufficiently polluted, we turned the Alen on at full fan power and left it to see how long it took to clear it of contaminants.

As with all our performance tests, we used the Purple Air Indoor sensor to track the number of small particles down to 1ug in the room, in real-time, allowing us to view the data on a graph.

Here’s what we found:

The highest point on the graph is where pollutants from the incense reach their maximum contamination.

As you can see from the sharp drop, the A350 goes straight to work on the larger particles in the room, while dealing with the smaller ones at a slightly slower pace.

The A350 cleared the room of contaminants in 35 minutes. Even though this unit is no longer sold, it holds its own against the newer, more modern units on the market.

Conclusion

This purifier provides a significant amount of cleaning for a small price of just under $400. It can be used in medium-sized rooms (400 square feet recommended) and can remove all types of particles successfully. My only issue with this purifier is the cost of replacement filters ($100 each year) and the lack of VOC capabilities.

When comparing with other purifiers you should make sure that you take into account the $100 a year cost, as some Lifetime HEPA filters will work out far cheaper in the long run and may outweigh the initial extra cost.

The Alen A350 air purifier is currently the highest-rated purifier in my medium range ($200-$700) purifiers, and I give it a 5-star rating.

If you want to move away from Alen for your next air purifier, then check out my latest recommendations for the best air purifiers for wildfire smoke.

Last update on 2023-06-08 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API